Acknowledgement of the enormity of the many socio-environmental, agricultural, food, health and related ‘planetary emergencies’ confronting us today has provoked a growing chorus of calls for urgent action. In the face of such urgency, it seems that there is less and less (obvious) time for pause and reflection. Moreover, both from within and directed at the social sciences, there are many who argue that it is time to dispense with or move beyond critique. From Latour’s 2004 question ‘has critique run out of steam?’ to more recent commentary, it may seem that the value of critique and critical thinking is no longer obvious, even in many social sciences. Instead, we are told, we must focus our attention on identifying and formulating constructive alternatives and/or solutions to the planetary emergencies currently haunting us.
5 things you need to know about the CFS
I am here at the CFS with 6 students from Wageningen, Don’t know what the CFS is? Check out this blog post.
This week I am teaming up with Nadia Lambek to research, reflect and write about the CFS.
In our conversations with people over the last few days (well actually, the last 6 years), we have been asked a lot of questions about the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), and often, the questions are the same.
To save you, and us, some time, we have identified the top 5 questionswe get about the CFS and provided our answers below.
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Call for papers for special issue on ‘City region foodscapes’
This is a call for papers for a special issue about ‘City region foodscapes’ of the open access journal Sustainability – Section Sustainable Urban and Rural Development.
There is increasing broad recognition that food is an integral part of the urban agenda. Cities in different parts of the world are developing policy and programme initiatives related to urban food provisioning. The 2007-2008 food price hikes, and climate-induced disruptions to food supply, have triggered a call for more resilient urban food systems. In addition, alarming increases in diet-related ill-health require cities to ensure access to sufficient, affordable, healthy and safe food to their population. Continue reading
Meet the WUR UN Food Security Bloggers
For the next week, 6 WUR students will be participating in the UN’s Committee for World Food Security (CFS) annual meeting as part of the official Social Media Team, an initiative coordinated by the CFS and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR).
Their contributions will be posted here as well as on this blog.
If you are on Twitter, follow the meeting and the #CFS43 Social Media Team by following this list.
The CFS is the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all. The Committee reports to the UN General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and to FAO Conference.Using a multi-stakeholder, inclusive approach, CFS develops and endorses policy recommendations and guidance on a wide range of food security and nutrition topics.
Click here for more information about the 43rd session of the CFS. Continue reading
Nominate your greenest teachers!
This week the Green Office of Wageningen is launching this year’s Green Teacher Award !
Last year the Green Office selected the teachers. This year they will do things differently.
Their aim is to let the members of the WUR community nominate themselves, their colleagues and/or their teachers. After this, the nominated teachers will get a questionnaire and a jury will use different criteria to select the ‘Green Teacher(s) of 2016’.
To nominate a Green Teacher, you can fill in this short form: https://goo.gl/forms/H6yeYLl7HPtauJmT2
The objective is to celebrate green teachers and to encourage teachers to think (more) about sustainability and how to implement this in their lectures.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 